How Abramoff Funded The Anti-Gay Agenda

[Wind Dancer]

One aspect of the corruption and bribery mega-scandal shaking Washington that is swirling around conservative lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and which hasn't gotten much mass media attention: how a lot of dough from Abramoff-controlled slush funds went to leading homophobes from the religious right.


Abramoff did more than hire anti-gay luminaries as Rev. Lou Sheldon (head of the Traditional Values Coalition) and Ralph Reed (former head of the Christian Coalition) with money from Abramoff's clients and front groups to lobby for special interests. Abramoff also funded an anti-gay group close to the lobbyist's best buddy and biggest water-carrier, Rep. Tom Delay -- the U.S. Family Network -- with laundered money that has been traced to Russian oil interests.


Let's start with Rev. Sheldon. He's such a professional anti-gay wacko that even conservative pundit Tucker Carlson has denounced him for it. In a Jan. 4 column Carlson wrote for MSNBC's website, Carlson recounted an interview he had with Sheldon, who told him, "You want to know what the single biggest problem facing inner-city black neighborhoods is? Homosexuality."


Carlson's reaction: "Homosexuality was the biggest problem in the inner cities? Bigger than crime? And unemployment? And poverty? And broken families? And AIDS?... Nope, there was no way around it. What the Reverend Lou had said was bizarre. And creepy too."

-more-

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=91&ItemID=9523




:mad: :puke: :mad: :puke: :mad: :puke:

[sarcasmo]

1. These Religious homophobes make me sick. I will never deal with another

Church as long as I live. Ralph Reed should burn at the stake.

[Judi Lynn]

2. This is a great article. 'm sure I would have never heard about this item

if I hadn't seen the article, and apparently a lot of OTHER Americans didn't see it as well:

In a lengthy piece of Pulitzer-quality investigative reporting on December 31 (little-noticed because it ran on a Saturday, which was New Year's Eve day to boot), the Washington Post's Jeff Smith exposed how Abramoff arranged funding for the U.S. Family Network, routed through London lawyers, from Russian energy executives who got DeLay to support Congressional funding for an International Monetary Fund bailout of the Russian economy. These Russian oiligarchs forked over a cool $1 million for the Network. Buckman, the U.S. Family Network's guru, put DeLay's wife on the payroll of his consulting firm -- for what the Post paints as a no-show job.
(snip)

So much has been NOT covered, or, in this case, published on days no one was reading the paper. So much to investigate, and we can be sure the MEpublicans will move heaven and earth to keep as much of the truth as possible from ever seeing the light of day. They are, as they tell us, such a pious group.

[Wind Dancer]

3. Those pics are frightening.

This constant attack on gays by these christo-fascists are extremely scary. These people use religion to promote hatred against anyone that doesn't agree with their "burn the witches" philosophy. People don't realize how much power these radicals have in society.

I fear these people.

[Wind Dancer]

4. Oops! dupe